Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-03-03
sbortlx after Mn. Tilden,s death, Coz

: ucH ultu ulditcA 10 ICSA-1Chb ~%AO' CAe---0
copy of his (Mr. Tilden's) letter ON
coast defenses, which was formally adj
dressed to Speaker Carlisle. Mr.. Glib
son said: s.Mr. Tilden read to me the
letter himself and N my presence dis
patched a copy to Mr. Cleveland"
This was written long after the letter
had become pablo. and shortly subse-
quent to Mr.. Tilden's death. The in
tention was 10 acquit Mr.. Tilden OF tho
charge that had been brought against
him at the time of the publication OF
the letter, to the effect that he had
taken good deal on himself in adj
dressing Congress through the Speak
or, in advance of the Presidents mes
sage, on National subject, over the
Presidents head. Mr.. Tilden had never
met the charge. John Bigelow. Man
ton Marble and Andrew II. Green had
never refuted it. They were the men
of all men who would be expected to
do so, for they did much of Mr.. lii
denis writing business for him. G. w.
Smith, Mr.. Tilden's secretary. has
never met that charge. A. M. Gibson
sought to meet it with an explicitness
that was unmistakable. His statement
was accepted and commented on adj
versely to Mr. Cleveland by all the anti
Cleveland papers, among which was
many paper that had been anti-Til-
den, until it could use mock respect
for Tilden as club with which to hit
Cleveland.
The fact that the men reported to DO
nearest to Mr.. Tilden never dealt with
this matter has been referred to to at
tach to Mr.. Gibson's statement this APP
pendix: Mr.. Cleveland never received
any copy of that letter from Mr.. Til
den or any one else. The first he ever
saw of it was when he opened the
morning papers and found it in them
The authority for this statement is the
President himself He is not liar.
He is not dead. No one need wait un-
til after his death to deny that he re-
ceived it or inquire of others than he
whether he ever received it. He is
alive. He can be asked any time. |
This declaration is made without any
design of rejecting on A. M. Gibson's |
certainty that he saw the letter mailed |
to Mr.. Cleveland. It may have mis- |
carried. The man to whom it was in |
trusted for mailing may have lost it.
The only thing that is surely fact in
the case is that Mr.. Cleveland never |
received that letter. He never
adopted and never has concerned him
self about the theory of having been |
sighted by the fact of the letter not |
having been sent to him. Small sug-
gestions do not affect him. But he has |
an opinion of that comment which has !
been based on the allegation that he |
did receive the letter and took no no. |
tice of it.
Another statement has been as posi- /
lively made to the effect that the Presi- /
dents sister. Miss r. E. Cleveland. |
wrote that part of his first message
about MormOnism. The statement |
was made in a way to be offensive to
the President and the lady. 1t could
not have been more positively made
had it been made by either or both OF
them. 1t was and is an an absolutely
truthless statement. The lady knew |
nothing about that or any other part |
of the message until she read it in the |
papers. Intrinsically the state ment, |
true or false. was unimportant. Nor |
ally it has the character which any en-
tirely false declaration, large or small, !
has. The squibs, slurs, argumenta-
tons and overt or covert sneers built
up on this often-reiterated lie have not |;
been few. They are multiplied con-
stantly. A quiet man in Washing
ton and studious lady at Holland |
ID. L., l.
that the statement is an untruth; two,
that those who originate it and period
ically reissue it are aware that it is an
untruth. OF that impurity of the mind !
which lie denotes, they also have an |
opinion.
AS often and as specifically as the two
declarations indicated are made appears
another to the effect that Mr.. Daniel !
Manning developed Grover Cleveland as |
a candidate for Governor at Syracuse, in !
1882, and elected him to the Office. |
Mr.. Manning controlled the Albany |
delegation at that convention. The |
delegates voted against Cleveland on |
every ballot from first to last in THAI |
conventiOn-one man excepted, Rufus |
w. Peckham, who insisted on voting for |
him and who did it alone. The eleven |
others voted for Slocum on every bal |
lot, including the last, pursuant to a
promise Mr.. Manning made to
General Slocum in Albany before
the convention. Every daily in this
State had the ballots in it on Sep
TENDER %, 1882. They will tell the
story. Yet nearly every daily will
continue the declaration which those
ballots confute to the end of time.
Journalism seems to be the calling
which is based on forgetfulness and in
spired by Imagination. just as Sir
Ashley Cooper said medicine was based !